By Greg Hazley
Canadian securities authorities have banned a corporate communications pro from practicing investor relations for two years, under a settlement deal announced Dec. 18.
The British Columbia Securities Commission said it reached a settlement with Aaron Ross, after he admitted he made promotional statements in February 2011 about a publicly traded mining company client, Aguila American Gold Ltd., while handling IR and communications. Ross worked in corporate communications for Aguila at the time, the commission said. (View the settlement agreement)
A list of investors contacted by Ross via phone and email the day before a news release was issued on behalf of the company included a BCSC investigator, who was given more ambitious and optimistic forecasts of drilling results than the release would reveal the next day. Ross told the investigator that the following days news release should push the stock to "2 or 3 bucks" and that they were "looking at 2 million ounces" of gold from a Peruvian project. The news release that followed contained information from a "five-year-old technical report" and did not contain any reference to "2 million ounces of gold."
Ross, who admitted to violation of two securities laws, has agreed to pay $2,500, in addition to the two-year IR ban. He admitted to making statements he ought o have known were misrepresentations. |